Killer Instinct Is a Fun Free to Play Xbox One Launch Game

Killer Instinct is a day-one digital-only release on Xbox One, and features -- get this -- one character. Jago is free to play on launch day. Everyone else -- unspecified returning characters as well as original fighters -- will cost money. Price is to-be-determined (of course).
(Killer Instinct, Xbox One)

Depends on the price of the characters. I mean, it's free to play. So if there's 30 characters for example and they're $2 a piece, that's $60. Normal price. Which would benefit gamers who only choose to play a handful of the roster.

This could be very good, or very bad depending on the pricing model. My guess? Very bad.

Yeah what phear said. If the cost of unlocking all the characters is that of a full game anyway then this just operates as an extended demo albeit one that you can play online against other players with different fighters.

If the game turns out to be more expensive than buying a retail game.....well then MS....you're the masters of fudging things up.

Is buying with real money the only way to get characters? It would be really shitty if it is.

F2P games need to use a proper F2P model like League of Legends where points you earn can be saved up to purchase new characters and buying with real money is just an extra option. The only thing LoL requires real money for is cosmetic changes to characters.

I'm pretty mad about Killer Instinct, I waited forever to play this game, and this is what they do to it? MS is turning into a bigger joke all the time. I completely agree with you. MS has the ability to do some bad ass games, but then they do shit like this and it totally pisses me off.

Woooooow. Bomb after bomb after bomb. Good luck geeting this game included in EVO. And correct me if I'm wrong, but it's not even being made by RARE: it's being made by the same people who did the GI Joe game and the Battleship game, so don't expect the fundamental gameplay to be deep or polished.

Also, the point of a fighting game is to have polish and balance. What do you think will happen when they involve the pay-to-win....er, excuse me, what do you think will happen when they involve the free-to-play model in a fighting game?

Lol this game is NOT even made by Rare! Haha what kind of joke is this? So what, Rare is still relegated to Kinect work? Hey, Microsoft, nice job! I'm pretty sure the guys who made Battleship The Board Game The Movie The Game is worthy of working on a game so beloved by fans right? Because we all know Battleship was an awesome game, and so was its movie, and Rare's much more untalented that they can only work on Kinect Sports Rivals!!

What next, you gonna make Halo 5 a game made by Gearbox Studios, the company that made such great and Game of The Year worthy games as Duke Nukem Forever and Aliens: Colonial Marines?

RARE is busy with Kinect Sports Rivalsplus...the RARE we know is no more! instead of continuing to taint the name of RARE, they should just change their name to MKS, Microsoft Kinect Studio as that's all they have been doing these days!

You guys! You guys! Microsoft really did listen! They're bringing back the Killer Instinct we all know and love! Remember how we used to not have the full roster of characters out the gate and we had to buy them all separately? Just like the good ol' days amiright?

Now I bet if sony was doing this with one of their games you would think it was genius. there is absolutely nothing wrong with what microsoft is doing with killer Instinc if the characters are priced right. 2 bucks a character is 40 bucks which is a deal.

this is only bad if they fuck it up by over pricing the characters but you Sony fans are going to make something that isn't a negative a negative any ways. this is basically letting you customize the game with the characters you want to play with.

Awww what the heck? this was one of the Xbox One games I was actually excited about. Still, not enough to put up with the actual console with no used games, DRM and all the spyware crap. Seriously Microsoft what are you doing?

dude... don't sit here and lie to me... you clearly don't own a 360.. there are plenty of games that you'd have played if you did own it... unless you're not a gamer and only a shill for Sony... it's fine if you just played it a little at a friends house there is nothing wrong with that

What about my friends who might want to play as other characters as me? And can I try the characters before buying them? Because I have no idea which character I'll like playing as, or am I supposed to go by looks?

Free to Play is a glorified demo. They should rename it pay to play. Just wait. Then they will say, "Jago is out of energy, please buy more stamina. 99 cents will get you 10 stamina slots so you can continue." F&*k Microsoft.

And you killed JAGO Microsoft, WTF was that, RIP JAGO and RIP KILLER INSTINCT, it was too good of a day I knew something bad had too happen. :-( well at least I have the old versions so I can relieve those good moments

This game looks good. I was more impressed by ms than sony cuz sony showed more indie stuff. Im gonna get both consoles , im not a fanboy, im entitled to have my own opinion, but theres too many fanboys here that like that disagree button, ignorant children.

This isn't anything new as some live arcade games share this practice already, particularly pinball fx2 where the core game is "free" but you pay for the tables. Didn't think they would do that with a fighter but ala's they did...

Judging from the cost for characters for current fighters which run at about $4, and being that this is a digital only game then i can only predict $2 per fighter... The wrench being they could consistently add more characters and the game could very well end up costing people up to $90 or more if they feel people are that stupid... And of course with the kinect they will KNOW who the stupid people are and fool them accordingly.

As for the game itself i was never a big fan of the original killer instinct, something about doing 80 hit combos with just 5 button presses that didn't appeal to me, plus the digital polished claymation art just didn't work for me...and this "updated" version looks washed out and no where as sharp or clean as the original so i'll be passing on this one, what am i talking about i'm passing on the whole box anyway...how's THAT for an ultra-combo.

That game didn't look like Killer Instinct at all to me. Seriously, where's all the unbelievable tech that offered the jaw-dropping visuals of yore in the arcades and on the super nes? Why aren't the characters er, how do you say that, "digitized" (?) in that game they showed? I think I've played better looking 2d fighters 25 years ago! Plus now we know the game will be a fee-fest to enjoy it so, here you go M$, way to announce something just for the sake of the announcement effect and be cheered by people who only react to what they hear, not what they see or what they know... ('-_-)

I refuse to believe anybody told Microsoft they wanted a "free" to play Killer Instinct where you have to buy every single character, developed not by Rare but by the team responsible for such games as G.I Joe: Rise of the Cobra.